Between ‘villages’ and ‘towns’ in the Mid Adriatic area: role and hierarchic organization of the ‘minor settlements’ in Roman times

The inland mountainous region of Abruzzo is very rich in ancient populations, small towns and minor settlements, playing already from the Iron Age, especially in Roman times and in late antiquity an important role, both for the local population as well as from the mechanisms of settling and from the economic point of view. For too long, the studies of the settlement patterns and of the economic exploitation of the region have looked just to the main centres, playing very poor attention to the minor centres and to boundary areas of this territory. The main centres and sites in the area, in fact, are quite well known, while the minor settlements and the smaller towns are now widely investigated by local Superintendence, Universities and archaeologists, but they have never been properly studied systematically from the topographic point of view. The archaeological team of Chieti University is applying a new approach to the study of the inland and mountainous settling patterns, in relationship with the surrounding territory, using new technologies and methodologies, as Remote Sensing, intensive survey projects, archaeometric analysis and non invasive geo-archaeological prospecting. The region was organised during the Iron Age and in Roman times in numerous settlements, very different in typologies, wideness, role, economic vocation and position, systematically and homogeneously planned from a hierarchic point of view. In late antiquity and during the Early Medieval age the patterns of the settlement changed the hierarchic organization. Moreover, they are generally closely related to the local road network, to the most important via Claudia Nova (Tratturo Magno and Via degli Abruzzi in Medieval Age), sanctuaries and temples, transhumance trackways and their development is greatly influenced by their locations and functions toward the main settlements and the exploitation of the territory. They are often the best sites to understand the mechanisms of settling as well as the role of the local productions and economy in the development and locations of these population patterns. Could be therefore very interesting to look at these minor typologies of sites contextualising them more closely and presenting the results of the recent excavations and surveys of Chieti University as sample cases. Moreover, the appendix s completely dedicated to the analytic study of an area, the ‘Conca Subequana’ in order to show more closely a territorial case.